This book
traces the development of the Scottish marine and its institutions during a highly turbulent and
formative period, when state intervention and warfare at sea in the pursuit of mercantilist goals
largely determined, intentionally and otherwise, the course of events. It charts Scotland’s
frustrated attempts to join England in the Atlantic economy and so secure her prosperity – an often
bitter relationship that culminated in the Darien Disaster. In the years that followed, maritime
affairs were at the very heart of the schism that propelled the move to embrace the full
incorporating Act of 1707. After 1707 Scottish maritime aspirations flourished under the
protection of the British Navigation Acts and the windfalls of endemic warfare at sea.

Author: Eric Graham is a Researcher in the Department of History at the University of Dundee and with Lloyds
Shipping Register.